The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) is alerting residents of icebreaking activities in the ports of Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., beginning Tuesday in preparation for the 2014 shipping season.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Alder, a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender homeported in Duluth, will commence ice-breaking operations in Duluth Harbor and out into Lake Superior.
The area in which the Alder crew plans to ice break included ice-covered areas commonly used by recreational users, such as Superior Front Channel, the Superior and Duluth Harbor basins and entry channels, East Gate, and the area adjacent to Minnesota Point in Lake Superior.
These ice-breaking efforts will expand and increase in frequency as the ice and requests of shipping require. This will include all navigable waters in and around the ports of Duluth and Superior, as well as the waters of Silver Bay, Taconite Harbor and Two Harbors in Minnesota.
The USCG said all ice fishermen should remove their ice shacks and equipment from these areas. Operators of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, and other recreational users of the ice should avoid shipping channels, plan their activities carefully and use caution near the ice.